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Saturday, March 21, 2009

VEXAG Part 2: Japanese Venus Climate Orbiterl

The last two VEXAG meetings (in May 2008 and February 2009) had status updates for the upcoming 2010 Japanese Venus orbiter, otherwise known as Planet-C. This mission will focus on atmospheric studies, with some measurements of the surface through atmospheric spectral windows. The missions goals (from the 2008 presentation) will be to:

The mission will use the extremely fast rotation of the upper atmosphere (the super rotation) to allow multi-hour observations of atmospheric dynamics. The orbiter will assume an elliptical equitorial orbit. For 24 hours, the 5 cameras on board will observe planet as the upper atmosphere rotates below in near synchronicity with the orbiter. This will allow the study of the small scale dynamics of the upper atmosphere.

Planet-C's five cameras will be optimized to probe phenomenon at different levels of the atmosphere and on the surface.

The Japanese mission will overlap with the expected extension of Europe's Venus Express mission. That "spacecraft is in a good health [sic] and very productive, but shows some signs of ageing." It appears from the ESA update at the VEXAG meeting that the limiting resource (barring catastrophic failure) will be the fuel supply, which is expected to last well into 2013. The overlap of the Japanese and ESA missions will allow simultaneous measurements at Venus from different orbits and from different suites of instruments.

About Me

You can contact me at futureplanets1@gmail.com with any questions or comments.
I have followed planetary exploration since I opened my newspaper in 1976 and saw the first photo from the surface of Mars. The challenges of conceiving and designing planetary missions has always fascinated me. I don't have any formal tie to NASA or planetary exploration (although I use data from NASA's Earth science missions in my professional work as an ecologist).
Corrections and additions always welcome.